wellbeing Archives

Mindsets to support children through COVID-19

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – Mindsets to support children through COVID-19.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to Dr. Christine Adams, MD, a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist who has practiced in Louisville, Kentucky for over forty years. Her work there involves long-term dynamic psychotherapy to help resolve anxiety and depression issues.

In this podcast, Dr Adams talks about the work she has been doing on children’s mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential mental health risks for children include anxiety, depression, loneliness and not being able to see their friends. These are all things adults can find just as problematic. As children can pick up on their parents behaviour and mimic it, adults need to pay attention to their own mental health.

Parents need to be engaged so they are aware of the things to look out for. Hardship builds resilience. If something is blocking you from achieving something you think of ways to get around it. Children are exactly the same. They come up with something new and from that will start to build resilience which they can then apply to situations in adult life.

Dr Adams has developed seven mindsets to support children during a quarantine period or lockdown. These are:

Explore how to be patient: Children don’t fully understand the concept of time until they are around ten years old. By linking the child’s experiences to waiting for things such as how long it took for their broken arm to heal or how long they had to wait for their birthday to come around you plant the idea ‘you waited for it then so you can wait out lockdown’.
Schedule and organise: Lockdown has meant families have been together at home far more. Being in the same space but with different schedules means there needs to be an understanding of who needs what space at what time. Its also a great opportunity for children to discover how the household works and to do chores of their own.
Boost creativity: Children need to work out how to make use of their free time. Much of childhood now revolves around organised activity so they need to learn how to use their imagination for entertainment.
Getting outdoors: Being outdoors is both mentally and physically refreshing. It also helps creativity and how to deal with the outside world and risk
Disconnect work from play: Its important to be able to keep schoolwork and play separate. Having a designated place for school work helps children focus. It also helps teach them the mindset of work and play which is important for adults working at home and work/life balance.
Share more: Being at home more means sharing and negotiating for space and time. This also prepares children for living in close proximity as adults. It also helps quieter, more submissive children develop the skills needed to stick up for themselves against an alpha child
Emotional health: Having a family discussion once or twice a week where everyone sits down and listens to each other is really helpful. Each family member can talk about their fears, hopes, whats gone well and whats not. This helps children listen to different views and people and helps parents correct misinformed outlooks.

These are all skills that will be helpful as children get older. They will remember the resilience they built and used during lockdown and be able to use these skills in their adult relationships and emotions

You can find out about Dr Adams through her website where there are free resources to download, blogs, podcasts and interviews.

Dr Adams book Living on Automatic is available from Amazon.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about Dr Adams here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

The impact of food choice on health

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – The impact of food choice on health.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to Mary Sheila Gonella, a former pilates teacher who twelve years ago changed direction to become an Holistic Nutrition Consultant and Educator. Mary Sheila, who is based in Sonoma, Northern California, helps people suffering from the effects of their food choices, stress levels and high blood sugar complications by making changes to their nutrition, food choice, diet and lifestyle so they can get their bodies back into balance and enjoy better health.

In this podcast Mary Sheila talks about the importance of our gut microbiome to our immune system, how it educates it about the different bacteria and viruses it meets and helps it regulate itself so we stay healthy. One of the things that can have a huge impact on our microbiome is stress and Mary Sheila recommends that we become more mindful when we eat our food – to rest and digest. If we eat when we are in a stressful situation such as driving, our fight or flight mechanism is engaged and our digestive system effectively shuts down. By stopping, sitting down and taking time when we are eating, we get much more out of our food. She also suggests that deep abdominal breathing can be very helpful for stress but also for issues like SIBO as it helps ‘massage’ the GI tract as well as oxygenating the body.

Growing up with six siblings in the 1970’s, Mary Sheila had access to a lot of the highly addictive convenience foods that were starting to flourish at the time and she talks about how this change in food culture has contributed to the weight problems, nutrition deficiencies, toxicity, and diabetes epidemic we face today. She also talks about the importance of coming back to our food roots through more traditional, simpler foods and eating food more in harmony with our body.

Mary Sheila talks about the role blood sugar plays in the body, its relation to food, its importance for metabolic homeostasis and balance, its link to the endocrine and hormonal glands and the effect it can have on our health when it goes out of balance. She feels that all of our body systems work better and our health is improved when our blood sugar is balanced so, as well as diabetes and gut disorders, we will have better sleep, improved digestion, a decrease in chronic inflammation and hormone imbalances, increased energy and a lift in mood disorders such as depression and anxiety,

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about Mary Sheila here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

You can get in touch with Mary Sheila through her website Occidental Nutrition where you can also download her eBook The Breakfast Report

The impact of food choice on health

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – The impact of food choice on health.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

You can get in touch with Mary Sheila through her website Occidental Nutrition where you can also download her eBook The Breakfast Report

Burnout and work culture

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – Burnout and work culture.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to David Shar, a human capital consultant, keynote speaker and trainer based in Baltimore. He has a Bachelor’s in Human Resource Management from Colorado State University and a Master’s in Industrial/Organisational Psychology from the University of Maryland. Currently he is a doctoral candidate in business psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology where he is studying the interaction between meaningful work and burnout.

David grew up in Baltimore and his first business venture was an ice cream franchise. Most of his employees were underprivileged young adults from the inner city. They faced many challenges in life but David noticed that despite this they were very engaged in their work. He found he had no problems in staff turnover or absence which other businesses suffered. David’s crew were all minimum wage workers and he questioned why his business wasn’t having the same problems.

Over time David realised that engagement and burnout was not just about resiliency. Organisations put up barriers which make things difficult for employees. The organisation then teaches them how to deal with the problems it has created. David feels we are now in a transitionary period. Work is transforming but not as quickly as we are. Many people are looking for more meaning in their work and the current situation is providing a unique opportunity to view work differently.

Many organisations have written and unwritten policies and norms that impact on the employee experience. These then trickle down into other areas. ‘Vestigual’ structures mean organisations maintain ways of working because its how things have always been done. Working at home is a great example. In the past the infrastructure wasn’t available to support it. Although it is now, some organisations still want their employees back in the office because that’s where they’ve always been. There is a lack of trust. This can be seen as the failure of leaders to have the courage to undertake a real leadership role. Organisations that have higher levels of burnout tend to have less imaginative leadership teams. Some leaders may even think that management itself might be a residual structure and become obsolete or not be as important.

David feels the leadership role is to support and to almost ‘disappear’ into the background. Leaders also need to morph so they become different things at different places and times. A leader of a small, dynamic organisation is completely different to a middle leader in a large corporation. The ASA Attraction Selection Attrition model sees people being attracted to, and recruited into, an organisation because they fit the current culture dynamic. People who are a good fit stay and rise whilst those who are a bad fit leave or are fired. This also happens as people progress in their career because they conform and become more restricted.

If employees are suffering from burnout there are signs that an organisation needs to be aware of. A high turnover of staff is one but, in a recession-based economy, a lack of turnover is just as serious. When staff are burnt out, leaving is a quick fix for the employee and the organisation. Burnt out staff become more cynical and are emotionally exhausted at work and at home. They can ‘churn the wheels’ but are not as productive. Even when they are productive they become demoralised and can succumb to physical ailments.

The first thing to do is to show support. Organisations need to evaluate what needs to change. When demand increases, control decreases and then support decreases. Currently, many people are out of a job and looking for work or working at home for the first time. The way they interact has completely changed and is emotionally demanding. They feel they don’t have any control, and have no idea what’s happening and they have no support. If demand is decreased by removing ineffective and outdated rules and policies, employees emotional and work level is decreased.

You can download our top tips to beat Burnout here.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about David here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

You can find out more about David through his website or contact him at LinkedIn

Work – make a choice and take control

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled, Work – make a choice and take control.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to Loraine Ladlow, a qualified barrister whose career has transitioned from working full-time for a large corporate organisation to a situation where she now has two portfolio roles.

In this podcast, Loraine talks about why she took the decision to leave her senior leadership role and take ten months out to travel, how she decided what she wanted to do on her return and how her voluntary work at the Football Association led to her starting a paid portfolio role with them.

Loraine discusses the ways work has changed to adapt to personal circumstances and the considerations around how we will need to think differently to manage the longevity of work through career breaks and part-time and flexible working options. She also talks about planning and preparing to make a career change, the benefits of taking on voluntary work to expand your experience and CV and being flexible in exploring new and different opportunities.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about Loraine here.

Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

Business Resilience – A conversation for the post COVID-19 world.

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – Business Resilience. A conversation for the post COVID-19 world.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks about how Personal Resilience, the ability to bounce back from times of adversity, is something that can be applied just as well to businesses and organisations. A resilient business is one that is able to overcome obstacles, meet evolving challenges and make the most of its opportunities. In the current climate it’s more important than ever that businesses look at the issues that determine their resilience and how they can bounce forward and thrive in a post COVID-19 world. As well as ‘the financial picture’, Dr Thackeray discusses the non-financial resilience factors businesses need to consider and outlines some thoughts and questions that may help you think about these issues in your own setting.

1. Mindset – People are dealing with stress and pressure in different ways. Some are running for the hills, some are coping and others are innovating or pivoting and seeing the situation as an opportunity. For some, the fear is overwhelming rationality and needs to be controlled. The future rolling forward could be devastating, it could be benign or it could actually be quite good. There will be a variety of views and whichever comes into being we need to be ready for it. What is important here is the mindset to see this situation as an opportunity and figure out to make the most of it. What mindsets are modelled and need to be adapted in your organisation and team? Given mindset can be adapted and developed, what steps are in place to begin to change the corporate conversation and stimulate fresh thinking in this area?

2. Managing for today and tomorrow – An important part of resilience is managing for today whilst having an eye for the future. If we don’t have a sense of purpose or an idea of what life is going to be at the end of this, then what’s the point of surviving it in the first place? Many businesses only focus on today – whilst business needs to be agile and think about the future. Why are we working in the way we are working? Why are we running expensive retail shopfronts when customers could wear virtual reality headsets? Why are we sending people around the world when it could be done virtually? How can technology, with which many people are becoming increasingly comfortable, add value for employees and customers?

3. Warning signs and triggers – Seeing the warning signs and triggers and knowing when your resilience has been compromised both as a business and as an individual is essential. To what end has your organisation become incapacitated or only wounded by the lockdown? There may a recession coming – perhaps discontinuous trading opportunities and organisations that recognise this may be able to diversify and develop the skills and agile processes (and cash) needed for a recession. Things will not be what they were before this whole episode so now is the time to get ready – perhaps some people furloughed would be best reactivated to plan and build capacity into processes and structures?

4. Building capacity – We’re all generally not best at building capacity, often preferring to ‘put fires out’. When times are good, we very rarely invest sufficiently in assets and resources that can help us during the bad times – and this can be exacerbated by a benign trading picture making us more complex and less lean. Are you aware that taking the decision not to spend any cash to invest in the future now means that you may be restricting your ability to bounce back?

5. Technology to the fore – We can now see the benefits and the risks of technology. Human beings come together because they want to come together and currently some interesting approaches and thoughts are being shared about this. The advantages of smart technology in organisations are clear and whilst some businesses are utilising AI and VR others are struggling with very outdated systems. How much are your IT systems holding you back? How much has the internal politics of the organisation restricted the ability to acquire the most appropriate IT capacity?

6. Economic futures and models – A big (national) debate about how will we bounce forward is looming. Growth funded by consumer and corporate debt is not sustainable over the long term so what’s needed is the key players to sit down and have an ego free conversation about what’s right. Does it look as if the opportunity to really grow a more socially balanced future is in our grasp if we can resist the opportunity to simply begin to trade as if nothing had happened?

7. Sharing ideas – As the population continues to grow how are we engaging across the wider planet? We’ve all come together to beat the pandemic and this coming together has produced a flow of ideas. In the scientific community ideas are shared for greater good regularly so should we go back to a narrower approach? Is it time to decide to invest in ideas and produce ‘things’ rather than simply create more coffee shops and services?

8. Lessons in leadership – The way we manage or lead people when they work in different places needs to adapt. We need to know our people better so the concept of tough love leadership comes to life. The virtual workplace seems too good an opportunity to miss. How will we develop managers and leaders to grow productivity and performance in a more distributed world?

9. The property boom? It may be the case that landlords and property owners have again been well protected in this lockdown. As more diverse technology platforms have been used and utilised, should we still be spending so much time thinking about property rental and ownership? Should we use and think about property assets and change to a more agile investment strategy? Whilst some organisations need physical locations, others definitely could innovate either existing premises or create new access points – could you redesign your property needs perhaps focusing on where office space really creates a ROI?

10. What we do and why we do it – A massive amount of time has been saved by not sitting in endless meetings or travelling, but the risk is that the prevailing culture is spilling into the new world with traditional face-to-face processes being replaced by endless and needless Zoom meetings. There is an opportunity to ask who needs to be in a meeting and when and why it’s called. In fact, how much of what we do at work is relevant and/or add to ROI? How many people have burnout or are currently burning out through irrelevant meetings, systems, processes and inefficiencies?

11. How important are we really? The furlough process has been a bit of a shock to some people who have discovered that their roles aren’t as vital as they thought. The people who actually deliver something tangible seem to be more prized and valued. Is there an opportunity to look at roles and decide whether some of the vague, ill-defined roles need to be trimmed – allowing those people to carry out more meaningful work

12. The role of the media – The media are driving short-term negativity. 24 hour rolling news means programme space needs to be filled and it’s easier to talk about something bad which triggers our negative bias. Constant media interrogation means politicians are appearing to be on the back-foot. We all need to be able to make mistakes, learn from it and move forward, this includes politicians. We need media who ask intelligent, forensic questions that we need answers to rather than the endless pointless questioning and blame game. How much of our organisational attention is focused on blame and exposure rather than accountability and learning?

13. PPE – COVID-19 has made us focus on what keeps us safe rather than what makes us money. The switch has made us focus key resources on the people who really need them and how they get them. When it doesn’t appear, the physical manifestation is the proof that going forward the entire world will not be online. We need the people who turn up and fix things. How much do we need to revalue the roles and efforts of those people?

14. Innovative thinking – Innovation and creative thinking is needed. We need to celebrate what we’re getting better so we need marketeers, creatives and innovators to show us what we can do. Recognising innovation should be part of what we do and should be quantified but not just financially, sometimes in the identification of difference and opportunity. How much innovation in organisations is squashed because of the need to make an instant return?

15. Mental health – Frontline workers may well suffer from PTSD so the effect on economy as well as the individuals will need to be factored in as we bounce forward. Other staff may have issues from staying at home for three months and there may be more lockdowns over the next few months so we will need to make sense of that rolling forward. How well geared are we to support the resilience of people so that they can be effective? How much do we invest in development that inadvertently disempowers managers from helping or making decisions as any form of employee symptom is categorized as a ‘Mental Health’ ‘condition?

16. Develop a sense of purpose – Purpose is essential in building resilience. Businesses are too complex and resilience wise we need to be simple and agile with a better outward focus. A long-term strategy with a culture that people buy into is required to give uniqueness and the ability to not only stand-out, but to stand up for what you are about. How strong and compelling is your sense of purpose? How are you measuring the benefit of that purpose?

17. Market reaction? – Speedy reactions will be needed. When we come out of this people will want to congregate, which is a natural part of human existence. We’re all missing the buzz from uplifting artistic and sporting enterprises but when we all start meeting up will it be wearing sponsored facemasks to protect ourselves? The range of opportunities that will manifest themselves is exciting and challenging – but will your available innovation capacity help you rise to the challenge?

18. Managing expectations – We should move back to productivity as a measure rather than satisfaction or engagement. People are generally satisfied if they are working on the right things, doing the right amount of it and meeting the right quality standard. We need to think about people, what their contribution is and what that means rather than just making them happy. How well situated are you to build this type of culture?

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

Routines and resilience

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – Routines and Resilience.

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to John Lamerton, MD of Big Idea Media and the author of, “Big Ideas for Small Businesses” and “Routine Machine”. John is a self confessed ‘lazy entrepreneur’, a former Civil Servant and self-taught marketer. He launched his first company, an internet marketing business in the year 2000 and since then, with his business partner, has owned, operated and invested in more than 100 different small businesses. John now runs two businesses of his own and writes personal development books for ‘normal people’.

In this podcast, John talks about starting his first small business, his initial idea that he wanted to be super successful but realised when his son was three months old that what was important wasn’t the money but the freedom and time that money afforded him. John has been called the ‘King of Routine’ after supercharging every aspect of his life and he talks about the importance of routines, how he uses routines to make changes to his life and uses the flexibility they provide to do other things and introduce new ideas.

You can get in touch with John through his website https://bigidea.co.uk
view his podcasts at https://bigidea.co.uk/podcast/ or keep up with his blogs at https://bigidea.co.uk/small-business-blog/

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about John here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

Preventing Workplace Suicide

The latest episode in our Resilience Unravelled series has now been released, Resilience Unravelled – Preventing workplace suicide

In this episode, Dr. Russell Thackeray talks to talks to Dr. Sally Spencer Thomas, a psychologist based in Colorado. Dr. Thomas has worked in the mental health field for a number of years and in 2004, after her brother died by suicide, she became very focused on suicide and what could be done to prevent it.

This is the second conversation between Dr Thackeray and Sally and, in this podcast, she talks specifically about workplace suicide, how it can be prevented and the signs and signals that can be picked-up on. Sally explains how work provides a social structure that gives us meaning, connection and our view of how we define ourselves in the world but how it can also impact on someone who is suicidal.

Sally feels that currently suicide has been medicalised and that the consequence of mental illness is not the only cause of suicide. Other things contribute to suicide including toxic workplace conditions and research undertaken in the US looks at the work environment and how it helps or hurts someone who might be vulnerable. Psychosocial hazards were identified that increase vulnerability – Variable 1 included job control, variability and security, Variable 2 included bullying, harassment and discrimination and Variable 3 looked at the areas around work and family integration.

Sally feels the conversation around workplace mental health where employees are encouraged to build their mental health awareness, resilience and emotional coping strategies is positive but that its equally important for organisations to look at what are they are doing that might contribute to vulnerability and that a combination of both views will provide a much better outcome. Sally also talks about the importance of leadership and communication in suicide prevention, how building resilience can help and that an organisations policies and practices for illness or physical injury should be a starting point for it’s mental health policies

The National Guidelines for Suicide Prevention in the United States that helps employers and professional organisations such as unions through a process of onboarding nine practices has information and resources that may be helpful and is available at https://workplacesuicideprevention.com/

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about Sally here. Our previous podcast episodes and upcoming guest list are also available and there is an option to sign-up to receive our podcast episodes on release.

Our full blog archive is also available and you can sign-up to receive these on a weekly basis.

You can get in touch with Sally at sallyspencerthomas.com

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Mindsets to support children through COVID-19

The impact of food choice on health

The impact of food choice on health

Burnout and work culture

Work – make a choice and take control

Business Resilience – A conversation for the post COVID-19 world.

Routines and resilience

Preventing Workplace Suicide

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